The San Diego Padres' ongoing quest for a World Series (or at least a playoff title). "You know that many runners enter a race, but only one of them wins the prize. So run to win! Athletes work hard to win a crown that cannot last, but we do it for a crown that will last forever." 1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Results tagged ‘ san diego ’

The Padres lost their first-place lead this week. It was almost unbelievable. We’d been hanging out there ever since April 19th, and then we finally gave it up to the Dodgers. Which is really, really sad.

I thoroughly enjoyed being in first place for all that time and I refuse to give it up now. It was soo cool to see my boys up there for such a long time because everyone said that the Padres would be far far away from there, like in the NL West cellar. Thankfully, the Diamondbacks took our place down there and we were able to stay on top.

Now that run seems to be over, but like I said, we just can’t give up hope. Come on, we gave up our lead to the Dodgers. The Dodgers! We have to get it back from them ASAP!!!

Now we won our first game today, another gem by Mat Latos, so that brings us back to only half a game behind the Dodgers. If we can win our second game tonight, I think we’ll be in good shape. Then all we have to do is win the next oh, say, 60 series. (I don’t even know how many series we have left)

Latos threw an amazing game today. He went six innings, allowing two hits, two runs, one walk, and struck out eight batters. Whew. I am so in love with our pitching staff right now. They are sooo good!

Speaking of pitching, how ’bout that outing by Stephen Strasburg? I was super excited to get to watch part of that game because he’s a San Diego boy. I never did get to see him pitch when he was here, but I really really hope that someday he’ll be able to play for the hometown team.

I love you Strassy!!!!

My boy Lance Zawadzki has not been doing too great in the last week. Seems like he’s only been given pinch-hitting opportunities, but he’s gotten his average up to .231. You can do it Lance! Maybe he’ll get to start tonight…

I just wanted to mention something that a couple people have been discussing in the comments of my entry a couple days ago: why do the Padres have such low attendance? Listen to what padres2050 pointed out: “Waiting to see how long a team is good, just to start going to games, is very weak. All around the league there are teams that had much worse starts than ours did, and their teams’ fans didn’t wait around, they showed up from day 1. Now I will agree all around the Majors, because of the economy, the attendance is down a bit. But not to 15K a game in most places. Our city is I believe 7th ranked in population in the country. It takes playing the Dodgers and the Cubs and having their fans come in to pack the park to sell out? That’s just sad. Other teams’ fans will travel from all over the country to Petco. Our fans won’t even come from San Diego. It must be disheartening for our players to see the empty stands or worse, to hear the visiting fans make it sound like it’s their home and not ours. I will go on record that I admire fans who come from afar when their team is not even in 1st place. I gotta respect that and wish our fans would do the same. Being a fan is not about winning or losing, it’s about supporting your team whether they are in first or last place. It’s about loyalty and showing up no matter what. Truthfully, I think a lot of San Diegans are weak in the excuses they use. It doesn’t help our reputation nationwide. We complain we don’t get enough national media attention. Why should they pay attention when the impression that’s given, with all the empty seats, is that we don’t care, ourselves? The Padres have done a lot of things, lowered ticket prices in a lot of areas, etc., they understand the economy is bad. They must really be flustered.”

I agree completely. We really have no excuse, and I really hope that the attendance will get up ASAP. We should be cheering for these boys no matter what, and even harder now that they’ve lost their first-place lead. They’ll spring back. They always do. But we need to get out there and support them already!

Looking forward to this game tonight. It’s been a really long time since we’ve had a double header. Go Jon Garland! Padres dominate.

The series over the weekend against the Phillies was great! We lost the first two games, which was not good, but we won the next two to split the series.

Talk about Adrian Gonzalez. I mean, it’s scary to think about how good he would be if he wasn’t stuck in Petco Park. Not that he can’t hit at Petco, but it seems like he catches fire on the road, especially at hitter’s parks. Over the weekend, he had seven hits, including three home runs, two of them in last night’s game. He’s scary good.

Another amazing part of this series was Wade LeBlanc’s performance last night. He went seven innings, allowing four hits and no runs. Oh my goodness he was good. I’m so psyched at our pitching right now. We’ve got some amazing dudes going out there day after day and pitching great games. Let me tell you, it’s so true that without pitching, you don’t win. But we do have pitching, and I know it’s a huge part of why we are still in first place in the NL West.

Scotty Hairston also had a home run last night. I am sooo happy that he’s back.

The weekend series was great. We’ve still got a half a game lead over the Dodgers. Now we’re going to play the Mets for three games before we get to come home.

Last night’s game was a blast to be a part of. The Padres are going through a very essential time right now: it’s about two months into the season, and the fans still aren’t sure if this team is for real yet. The too-good-to-be-true pitching is coming back down the earth, and the offense is really slowing down. This series is essential: are the Padres going to be able to turn on the pitching and the offense, or are they going to lose their first-place lead?

Last night’s game was not encouraging. All week, the offense has been pretty slow. In the Cardinals series we scored six runs. Last night was a blast just because I got to be there to cheer for my boys, but it was really frustrating at the same time.

Ever since before the season started, I decided that I would just take this season one game at a time. I decided that I wouldn’t make predictions about what my boys were going to do, and I wouldn’t say if we were going to win the NL West or hang out in the cellar all season. I didn’t do those things because honestly, I had no idea what this team was going to do. I didn’t know if we were going to be bad or good. I didn’t have a clue.

There was a really interesting column in the Union-Tribune about the fact that Padres fans still aren’t sure about this team. That’s okay. I’m not sure about them either. I’m definitely keeping the faith, but just like at the beginning of the season, I have no idea where they’re going to go right now.

Last night I saw some things that really worried me. Mainly, it was the offense. We did score three runs, but we left eight runners on base. When we were down by three runs in the bottom of the ninth, we got the bases loaded with no outs. But the Nationals were able to get out of the inning only allowing one run. I’m sorry, but that’s unacceptable. If we’re going to go to the trouble to load the bases in the ninth, with NO OUTS, we absolutely need to get more than one run out of that. Besides that, we had plenty of other chances to get runs earlier in the game. We shouldn’t even have to go into the bottom of the ninth! I don’t know what else to say. We’ve just got to get the job done.

I was pretty pleased with Clayton Richard’s start. He went seven innings, allowing four runs, including two home runs. I feel like those two homers were his only mistakes. But let me tell you, that first three-run homer was a killer. It definitely set the mood for the rest of the game.

One thing that I noticed about Clayton was that he got a lot of short grounders. Maybe it was just me, but he seemed to be going for balls that were hit really close to him a lot. He did make a few good plays, but he missed a lot of them. Another thing I noticed is that the name “Clayton” is really hard to scream. Anyways, I think that Richard was very solid.

Yorvit Torrealba had a great night, getting three hits. David Eckstein, Oscar Salazar, and Chris Denorfia each had two hits. Denorfia also drove in two runs. I was impressed with him.

What I was not impressed with was Ryan Webb pitching the top of the ninth. I guess he couldn’t really help it, but he allowed an insurance run that pretty much killed our game. I mean, at 4-2, we had a huge chance of coming back in the bottom of the ninth, but 5-2? Not cool at all.

It was a frustrating game, but you know what, it’s okay. I’m pretty sure that we’ll get the next two games. I think the offense should come back. And I really hope that the pitching will be okay.

Last night, as I watched these boys load the bases in the ninth, I really, truly believed in them. No matter what anyone wants to think, these boys are legit. This long first-place reign is not a hoax. These San Diego Padres are for real.

The crowd was okay last night. There was about 23,000 out there on a Friday night. But there were a lot of empty spaces. Too many. I would really encourage people to go out to Petco to take in a game. Like I said, this team is for real. I think it would be great for the team to get some big support from their fans.

Though we were a small crowd, we really turned it up in that ninth inning. We all believed in our boys, and it was so much fun to be a part of an enthusiastic crowd. I love it when we’re all cheering super loud without prompt from the scoreboard. I know that for my part, I screamed my lungs out, especially in that last inning. My throat is really sore today, but it was so worth it.

I had a great, great time out there. Obviously, it would have been even better to have a win, but it was okay. It was still great to go out there and support my boys. Lately, my fanhood had been a little disconnected, but I think it’s been recharged. I love these boys, and they’re doing great. They’re making San Diego proud. I can’t wait to listen to tonight’s game and hopefully listen to a big win!

The Kevin Kouzmanoff jersey is laid out, the Sharpies are lined up, the camera is charged, and the tickets are ready to go.

It’s gameday.

Yes, sir, today is a very special day because I am going to my first Padres game of the year. I’M SOOOOOOO EXCITED!!!!

Going out to the ballpark is a very special thing. Baseball is a great game, and can be enjoyed in any form, but hands down the best way to experience it is at the ballpark. There’s nothing like being right there, watching the action unfold in front of your eyes. I’ll have to check, but I think this will be my 14th or 15th game that I’ve ever been too. Each one has many, many memories: not just of the amazing baseball that I’ve seen, but also interacting with friends and fellow fans there. There is nothing like it.

I’m really excited to get autographs and watch some great baseball. I know that yesterday’s game was not so great, but today’s a new day and I think we’ll do wonderful. Plus, there’s the fact that in the five games I attended last year, my boys won each one of them. I have a feeling that that streak’s going to keep going into this year ;)

I get to go to the game with one of my closest friends, and we’re planning to eat lots of candy and get super hyper. I always get totally hyper when I’m at the ballpark anyway, but add the sugar factor and it’s going to be a crazy night!

I’m also really excited to see how different things are from last year. I’m thrilled that I get to pick up my first copy of the Padres Blueprint. I’m really, really sad that the 5-for-$5 deal is no longer going, though. 5-for-$5, you will be sorely missed. – Moment of silence –

It’s going to be a GREAT night out at the ballpark. Two and a half hours until we leave and counting…

The past two games have been AMAZING. I knew that we would have to fight pretty hard to beat these Cardinals, but it actually hasn’t been too bad at all.

In the first game of the series, we scored our first and only run in the bottom of the second on Jerry Hairston Jr.’s first home run of the season. Jon Garland was amazing, going seven inning and allowing no runs. Mike Adams took an inning, and then Heath Bell made things extremely stressing again, but we pulled off the 1-0 win.

Then last night was crazy! But let me just say, both Kevin Correia and Jaime Garcia pitched amazingly. They both went six innings, allowing no runs. I was really pleased about K-Cor’s outing because his last two have been pretty shaky. I think it’s safe to say that he’s back and he’s on his game. Last night’s effort was great.

On the offensive side, things were horribly slow. We didn’t get our first run until the bottom of the eighth, when Matt Stairs doubled in Adrian.

We handed our narrow lead to Heath Bell in the top of the ninth, which turned out to be a not-so-good idea. I know that Heath’s our closer and all, but he makes me sooooo nervous, and if I was Buddy Black, I would not have trusted him with that lead.

I know that all closers blow one every once in a while…but still.

Last night Heath came very, very close to getting himself out of the mess that he had got himself into in the first place. In every single save opportunity, he always allows baserunners. He lets things get too close. He’s gotta learn that that’s just not going to cut it. He keeps being such a daredevil and this time it really came back to bite him. He blew the save, allowed the tying run (though he didn’t really have any help from his defense), and sent us into extra innings.

Extra innings. Personally, they annoy me like crazy because then that means I have to stay up later and later. Last night I listened to the tenth, but then just went to bed. So it wasn’t until this morning that I found out how the game ended, but I’m so glad that we won!

In the bottom of the 13th, with two outs, Jerry Hairston hit the first pitch he saw right out of the park for a walk-off home run. So cool!!!

Obviously, it was really great to win the series, and against the Cardinals too! I was kind of apprehensive going into this series because I knew that we had always been dominated by the Cardinals. But this has been pretty easy. I thought we would be having a slugfest going here or something, but St. Louis has only scored one run in 21.5 innings. HAHAHAHA!

It feels really good to be winning against a team like this.

And we’ve still got our first-place lead! Plus, we’re going for a sweep today. Things are looking good in Padres baseball.

Kevin Kouzmanoff has been gone from the Padres for about four months. I haven’t really dedicated an entry to him at all since the season started, so I’d like to update you all on how he’s been doing over with the A’s.

First of all, I really miss him. I think I would probably miss him even more if my Padres weren’t doing so well. I mean, if we were down in the cellar, I would be a lot more upset. So far, the Padres have been playing so well that I haven’t really had time to think about my baby. But I still miss him like crazy.

On Friday, I’m going to my first game of the year, which also marks my first Padres game since Kouz got traded. It’s going to be very sad not to have him there. I LOVE going to games, but I was always extra excited about it because I would get to see Kouz. It’s going to be very sad without him there.

Kouz has been doing very well with Oakland. I’m just really glad that he didn’t leave and then completely bomb like some other people who left San Diego did (*cough Trevor and Jake cough*).

Right now he’s hitting .265 with three home runs and 21 RBIs. But on the defensive side, he already has four errors. Last year he had three total. I think he’s really provided a lot to Oakland, and for that I’m thankful.

I think I would also miss him a lot more if Chase was a total bust at third for us. But as it is, he’s been pretty decent, and I’m thankful for that too.

I do miss him a lot though. It’s so sad that he had to leave. But no matter what, this dude will always be my number one favorite baseball player. I’m going to be out there on Friday night with my special Kouzmanoff jersey, and maybe I’ll even break out a picture of Kouz to put on my sleeve. I know that it’s going to be a special night. Since we’re playing against the Nationals, I’m really hoping that we’ll get a big win. The Nationals actually aren’t doing too bad this season, but still.

But first, we’ve got the Cardinals to deal with. I think this is going to be a huge series. By the way, I’m really really glad that we were able to come back and win the series over the weekend over the Mariners. We like NEVER win a series against the Mariners, or any Interleague games for that matter, so I was really, really glad we were able to get that. Plus, we got our one-run first-place lead back, so we’re good. But the Cards are going to be an extremely tough team to beat. I think. Looking at the records alone, we are actually very close. It’s going to be a very well-matched series, so it’ll be interesting to see who comes out on top. Hopefully, it will be my Padres!

That’s really all I can say about last night’s game, but it’s not wow in a good way.

Have you ever noticed that whenever your pitchers are completely blowing up and allowing a ton of runs early, it always seems like your offense also has their biggest night of the week? I just don’t get it, but it happens a lot with the Padres.

We scored eight runs last night. We haven’t had anywhere near that many runs in a loooong time. If only our pitching hadn’t given up 15 runs, we would have easily won that game. It’s so weird, though: would we have scored those eight runs at all if the pitching hadn’t been so horrible? So strange.

So if you haven’t picked up on it yet, last night’s game was really, really bad. But there was a lot of good in it at the same time. Argh.

First, the bad. Two people in particular: Wade LeBlanc and Cesar Ramos. Oh my goodness. They were terribly off. Now, Wade has a horrible record at Safeco, so we could blame his outing on that. But I’m not exactly sure that I believe that the place they’re pitching at effects their performance. I don’t know. Obviously it will effect them a little, just because it’s a different place, a different crowd, different hitters. But I don’t think it should effect them that much. Maybe it’s psychological.

Wade gave up eight runs in three innings. I told you it was bad. Then Ramos came in and gave up seven runs in one innings. Even worse. Adam Russell, Joe Thatcher, and Ryan Webb did really well, but by then it was too late.

Oh yeah, I guess I haven’t said this yet. I HATE INTERLEAGUE!!!!!!!!

Postives would be that we scored eight runs, though we left nine runners on base. Adrian Gonzalez and David Eckstein had four hits each. I’m really happy that Adrian’s seemed to found his bat again. He’s on fire right now!

I was really impressed with Oscar Salazar last night. He was DH-ing, and he got two hits and drove in three runs.

I am EXTREMELY annoyed with Interleague Play. My boys ALWAYS get killed in interleague play, and it’s often killed our season. I HATE IT SOOOOO MUCH!!!!

I am also very annoyed with Josh Bard. He’s with the Mariners now, and he hit a home run last night and drove in three runs. SO NOT COOL!!! Plus I think we had Josh Wilson for a while last year and he got two hits and drove in two runs against us. It’s SUPER annoying.

I feel like my boys are getting sucked into something that’s going to chew them up and then spit them out dead. There’s absolutely no way we can get out of Interleague play, so we just have to face our doom. I am going to be seriously ticked if our season is ruined because of Interleague. It’s not right. Aw man. I HATE IT SOOOOO MUCH!!!!

But then again, I could be just overreacting to that horrible game last night. Maybe this year will be different. Maybe for once in our 40-year existence, we’ll be able to dominate the Interleague play.

I’m a huge advocate for getting rid of Interleague play. Okay, the American League is stronger than us. We get it. No, we don’t need you to show us how good you are by ruining our season. Thank you.

Alright, keeping the faith here. Clayton Richard is going out there tonight, and he is going to dominate. He is going to get us back into sole possesion of first place. He is going to get us back on track. He’s going to show me that this team can win against anyone. Actually, he’ll have a lot of help from his offense. Right, boys?

You know, the Padres have gone 40 years without any player hitting for the cycle. But for some reason, I think that’s finally going to be fulfilled very soon. We’ve come very, very close multiple times this season already. I’d say that we’ve been one hit away three or four times. It’s going to happen. Last night, Will Venable put on quite the show. Even though he didn’t hit for the cycle, it was still an impressive performance.

Will was in the leadoff spot for the first time this season, and I think that’s a good spot for him to be. He went 4-for-5 last night, with a single, two doubles, a triple, and a walk. He also scored four runs. Pretty amazing. He was just a home run away! Huge game for him.

Another person who had a huge game was Adrian Gonzalez. He drove in a career-high six runs, including a massive three-run homer.

I think this is going to be a game that we’ll remember for a long time. Not really for anything too huge, but there were just so many interesting aspects of it. First of all, it was another battle for our first-place lead. With LA’s nine-game winning streak or whatever, they’ve really gotten into this race. Now it’s not just SanFran we’re going to have to worry about. Like I’ve said before, my boys are not sitting comfortably on top of the NL West. This thing is a fight, and we have to keep pushing to keep this lead.

Second of all, this game was ridiculously long. I’m sure it didn’t help that we had scored eight runs before the fifth inning, and that Jon Garland was pitching. The guy’s a good pitcher and all, but my goodness, somebody really needs to speed him up. As it is, he only went five innings, allowing four runs on nine hits. But then again, Ramon Ortiz only went 3.1 innings.

Third, it was overall a great offensive game for the whole team. Sure, we have Adrian and Will as standouts, but the whole lineup really contributed. We had 10 runs and 14 hits. Notable is the top of the lineup: Will, four hits; Eck, two hits; Adrian, three hits. Chase Headley hit a solo home run.

At the same time, though, we left a ton of runners on base. We could have been well on our way to 20 runs, but we left 13 runners on base. We were only 7-for-22 with runners in scoring position! That was something that was a little frustrating, but we did take a little advantage. We got two runs in the top of the ninth after not scoring since the fourth inning.

One person on this team I am really frustrated with right now is Edward Mujica. I mean, he hasn’t been horrible, but he has been giving up a few runs here and there. I don’t like it.

Luke Gregerson and Ryan Webb had perfect one-inning outings, which was good. I was really glad that we got those two runs in the top of the ninth so that Heath wouldn’t have to pitch.

It was an amazing game. It’s always great to beat the Dodgers, and it was cool to break their winning streak, since they were so rude as to break ours over the weekend. I really hope that we’ll be able to get the little sweep tonight.

So I’d like to talk about Trevor Hoffman a little. A couple nights ago, he blew his fifth save of the year in 10 chances. That is not good at all. I’m worried about him. He’s usually a lot better than this. I mean, like he said, it’s not like he was throwing 90 last year and now he’s down to 80. He wasn’t completely solid last year, but he closed down games. I’d like to say that he’s not doing so well because he left San Diego, but I know that even if he did come back here, he would probably be throwing the same way. But whatever happens, he can’t retire yet, and he doesn’t want to do that either. He’s just a little off right now (okay, a lot) and the Brewers are going to give him a break for a couple games. We love you, Trevor!

Tonight the Padres are playing the Dodgers again. Kevin Correia is going against Clayton Kershaw. We haven’t done that well agaisnt Kershaw this season, but the past is the past.

I am sooo bummed about this weekend. Not even funny. It’s pretty sad that we lost three games in a row, but against the Dodgers too? Argh.

It was a horrible series!!! The only positive I think of is like, Wade LeBlanc yesterday. He only allowed one run in seven innings. It was a great outing. But we lost the game 1-0. The night before we lost the game 4-1. The day before that was 4-3. It was an awful awful awful series.

I wouldn’t say that it was all the pitching’s fault. Maybe on Friday it was. But Kevin Correia was amazing on Saturday. Sure, he allowed four runs, but his offense wasn’t there for him. That game was unbelievable. As I sat there and watched Gameday, there was a feeling just totally overwhelming me that there was no possible way that we could come close to winning that game. It was the worst feeling ever. I tried keeping the faith, but the offense was giving me nothing. It was unbelievable.

After that amazing sweep of the Giants and that amazing outing by Mat Latos on Wednesday, I think we expected a lot more from this team. I have no idea what could have possibly happened in a matter of hours, but the team that came out there on Friday night was not the same team we saw a few days before. It was crazy.

Did you know that we had never lost three games in a row all season before yesterday? We’ve been amazing. The Dodgers have been not so amazing. Why were our roles reversed this weekend? It just doesn’t make any sense.

We are still hanging on by a thread to our first place lead, half a game. If we hadn’t swept the Giants earlier in the week, we would have lost that lead. I’m thankful that we still have it, but we’re walking on very precarious ground. We’ve got to get right back on our horse now. And guess what, we’ve got perfect timing here: we’re playing the Giants for two games here at Petco.

We were able to beat them at ATT&T, so we’ll be able to beat them at home…right? Right?

Gameplan: forget about the Dodgers series like, right now. Erase it from the memory. Focus on beating the Giants. Be thankful that we’re not facing Timmy, but hope that the Giants are scared that they have to face Mat Latos again. Let’s get this.

For some reason, I haven’t thought to look at it for a really long time. So when I finally noticed it this morning, I was shocked. We’re 21-12!!!! How amazing is that? That’s soooo cool!!!

The first game of this series against the Giants went pretty well. We did leave a ton of runners on base, which was not good, but thankfully the pitching was amazingly solid and we were able to win the game 3-2. That gave us a 1 1/2 game lead over the Giants.

Then last night, Clayton Richard went out there against Matt Cain. Someone said something on the postgame show last night that made me laugh. I think he said something to the effect that we knew we were going to have a tough time going up against Cain. Are you kidding me? We’ve always dominated this guy, especially at Petco. He’s no problem for us at all. I’m very thankful that we don’t have to face Tim Lincecum in this series, but even if we had to, I have absolutely no doubt that we would be able to win that game against him.

I mean, we really threw Cain off of his game. He threw 114 pitches in 6.2 innings, and only 65 of those pitches were strikes.

In the top of the second, we got two runs: Yorvit Torrealba singled in a run, and then Clayton hit a sac-fly.

The Giants got those runs right back in the bottom of the inning. In the top of the fourth, Jerry Hairston Jr. doubled in a run. Torrealba drove in another run in the sixth, and Scotty sac-flied our fifth run in the seventh.

Mike Adams took an inning, and then Heath Bell came in to get his tenth save of the season. We won the game 5-2, which means that we won the series, which means that we’ve extended our lead over the Giants to 2 1/2 games.

Like I said, this was a must-win series, and what do you know, we’ve won it. Amazing effort by these guys. They’re amazing!!

We stole four bases last night, which extended our season total to 44. Still leading the Major Leagues. On that note, did you know that our 21-12 record is the best in the National League? Pretty amazing.

It is so much fun to watch this team! We’ve been on this roll for quite a while, and I’m starting to think that it’s going to last. I mean, who knows, we’ve got a ton of season left. But can you blame me if I’m starting to think about October already?

Okay, I’ll try to keep those thoughts down for now. We do have a long way to go, and a lot can happen in that time. Let’s just enjoy this amazing time here and now. Take it one game at a time.

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